How to Monetize a 6-month Home Decor Blog

[cristianoeinste]

Hi,

I created a little side project with my partner six months ago: a home decor blog. So far, we have 30 articles on the website with an average of 1200 words each. Here are some statistics on the website for the whole period it has been alive:

GSC: 1,700 clicks; 26,500 impressions
Analytics: 2,700 users

It has been averaging 700-1000 monthly visitors in the last two months. This is mainly due to three informational keywords I found that had zero competition but high search volume. The rest of the articles have minimal page views.

Since the beginning, I have been thinking about monetizing the website primarily through affiliates and ads. However, most affiliate programs in the Home Decor/Design niche offer ridiculously low commissions (like that 4% from Amazon). I work with a colleague that owns a finance website with affiliate programs that offer him commissions in the $300-$500 ballpark. So basically, it's great if he gets four conversions a month.

This is my problem. With 4-8% commission rates, it will take an enormous amount of visitors to earn some money. This is why I was thinking about attempting to write some articles on some Design courses or software because these affiliate programs usually have higher rates.

So, what would you do in my position? I really wanted to hear your thoughts on this. Keep in mind the end game is to get the site to 4-5K a month, sell it, and start over. I hate writing, so I just want to have money to be able to pay other people to do it for me.

 

[freshpeppermint]

Hi,

I created a little side project with my partner six months ago: a home decor blog. So far, we have 30 articles on the website with an average of 1200 words each. Here are some statistics on the website for the whole period it has been alive:

GSC: 1,700 clicks; 26,500 impressions
Analytics: 2,700 users

It has been averaging 700-1000 monthly visitors in the last two months. This is mainly due to three informational keywords I found that had zero competition but high search volume. The rest of the articles have minimal page views.

Since the beginning, I have been thinking about monetizing the website primarily through affiliates and ads. However, most affiliate programs in the Home Decor/Design niche offer ridiculously low commissions (like that 4% from Amazon). I work with a colleague that owns a finance website with affiliate programs that offer him commissions in the $300-$500 ballpark. So basically, it's great if he gets four conversions a month.

This is my problem. With 4-8% commission rates, it will take an enormous amount of visitors to earn some money. This is why I was thinking about attempting to write some articles on some Design courses or software because these affiliate programs usually have higher rates.

So, what would you do in my position? I really wanted to hear your thoughts on this. Keep in mind the end game is to get the site to 4-5K a month, sell it, and start over. I hate writing, so I just want to have money to be able to pay other people to do it for me.

Do you mean to do a completely new niche site or just write about a completely different topic on your current site? I don't recommend doing a completely different topic on your site. I realized topical relevancy matters so much recently and you don't want random things on your blog. I have a blog that had way more backlinks than my other blog. Based on "DA/DR". Yet it still outranks despite being slightly lower quality. It's obvious that it's ranking because of topical relevance.

I am also seeing that this AI site ranking which has STRONG topical relevance about topics with 500-800 articles on a particular topic. Which ranks it super high.

 

[convbelt]

The nice thing is you already have a bit of traffic after 6 months; not everyone can say that.

it will take an enormous amount of visitors to earn some money

Have you done the math? Looked at how other Home/Decor blogs make? How many visitors do they get? How many posts do they have? How old is their site? Do they have a social presence (not just registered an account on all platforms)? If they're monetizing with display ads, what ad provider do they work with (Ezoic, Mediavine, AdThrive, other)? Where does the traffic come from (US/UK/CA, India, France, Greenland)? If they're monetizing with affiliate, what programs are they in?

Could you write more content related to that one post that brings the majority of the traffic?
You could write and publish more posts, apply to AdSense and put some ads (as well as affiliate links and images) in your content. Then, reinvest everything you make and start outsourcing some of the content. When you get to 50k sessions L30D, apply to Mediavine (or wait for 100k sessions L30D and apply to AdThrive).

In case you haven't read this already: SEO Avalanche Technique

Keep us posted!

 

[cristianoeinste]

Do you mean to do a completely new niche site or just write about a completely different topic on your current site? I don't recommend doing a completely different topic on your site. I realized topical relevancy matters so much recently and you don't want random things on your blog. I have a blog that had way more backlinks than my other blog. Based on "DA/DR". Yet it still outranks despite being slightly lower quality. It's obvious that it's ranking because of topical relevance.

I am also seeing that this AI site ranking which has STRONG topical relevance about topics with 500-800 articles on a particular topic. Which ranks it super high.

I'm more in a vertical than a specific niche. That may have been a mistake; time will tell. But I will try to compensate for the lack of specificity with backlinks. My current problem is only how to monetize the shit out of this website. A thousand monthly visitors' websites can earn at least $500, and I am earning zero.

The nice thing is you already have a bit of traffic after 6 months; not everyone can say that.

Have you done the math? Looked at how other Home/Decor blogs make? How many visitors do they get? How many posts do they have? How old is their site? Do they have a social presence (not just registered an account on all platforms)? If they're monetizing with display ads, what ad provider do they work with (Ezoic, Mediavine, AdThrive, other)? Where does the traffic come from (US/UK/CA, India, France, Greenland)? If they're monetizing with affiliate, what programs are they in?

Could you write more content related to that one post that brings the majority of the traffic?
You could write and publish more posts, apply to AdSense and put some ads (as well as affiliate links and images) in your content. Then, reinvest everything you make and start outsourcing some of the content. When you get to 50k sessions L30D, apply to Mediavine (or wait for 100k sessions L30D and apply to AdThrive).

In case you haven't read this already: SEO Avalanche Technique

Keep us posted!

I have looked but cannot find a specific product/service/software that I can promote that is high-ticket. Most home decor blogs have high earnings, mainly through having an absurd amount of traffic. This involves having 200+ posts on the website, which will take forever to write in my current life. And I will be honest: I hate writing content for this website. I love doing everything SEO-related (from keyword research to backlinks), but the writing part is always a pain in the ass.

It is interesting to think about writing more articles related to that one post. Honestly, it will increase my traffic, but I don't see any affiliate potential.

As far as the SEO Avalanche Technique, I have seen it already, but I will dive deep into it tonight.

 

[Ryuzaki]

A thousand monthly visitors' websites can earn at least $500, and I am earning zero.

Yes, a website about signing up for rehab or securing a reverse mortgage can earn a lot. A site about "How to hang curtain rods without nails" or whatever isn't going to do that. The trade off is that the competition is way lower and you make up the difference with the volume of traffic you earn.

If you go the traditional routes of display advertising and affiliate products, you can expect to earn anywhere between $10 - $55, depending on who you're using, you're skillset, and which month it is in which quarter of the year. This is the difference between raw Adsenes on through something like Mediavine or AdThrive, combined with Amazon or Wayfair or whomever. You won't have access to Mediavine or Wayfair yet, so you'll start on the bottom end.

You can't compare your website to a site in a different vertical with different demographics and types of content and monetization potentials. You either keep doing what you're doing and work within those parameters, or you switch to what may seem like greener pastures. Those greener pastures are going to be more competitive and require more funding.

 

[cristianoeinste]

Yes, a website about signing up for rehab or securing a reverse mortgage can earn a lot. A site about "How to hang curtain rods without nails" or whatever isn't going to do that. The trade off is that the competition is way lower and you make up the difference with the volume of traffic you earn.

If you go the traditional routes of display advertising and affiliate products, you can expect to earn anywhere between $10 - $55, depending on who you're using, you're skillset, and which month it is in which quarter of the year. This is the difference between raw Adsenes on through something like Mediavine or AdThrive, combined with Amazon or Wayfair or whomever. You won't have access to Mediavine or Wayfair yet, so you'll start on the bottom end.

You can't compare your website to a site in a different vertical with different demographics and types of content and monetization potentials. You either keep doing what you're doing and work within those parameters, or you switch to what may seem like greener pastures. Those greener pastures are going to be more competitive and require more funding.

So you are saying just to keep pushing content out, that there is no magic wand. I get it. I just thought there might be some software/product with recurring commissions that I hadn't heard of.

Thank you for the advice, nonetheless. I will keep my head down, look at the keyboard, and write until I reach 100 posts and the year mark (July). I hope to be at 10.000 visitors at least by then.

Btw, do you have any recommendations on finding keywords through Reddit or Quora? I mainly find keywords through a combination of Ahrefs, Google keyword planner, and looking at the SERP results myself. But even with the easiest keywords, I seem to have a hard time ranking. I'd say it's because of the Sandbox, but who knows? I guess I'll have to wait and see.